I first discovered Farha Khalidi, who has 1.8 million followers on TikTok, through seeing clips of her shutting down red pill and manosphere type influencers on something called the @whatever podcast, which a friend described to me as material from the lowest level of content hell. I was impressed, as before this the women in these kinds of debates seemed to serve as little more than punching bags. Yet Farha was interesting because she had the voice and affectation of a condescending leftist but the words that were coming out of her mouth were actually sensible.
We connected through X and decided to meet up for a podcast when she was in town. I did a studio interview for the first time, which you can watch below. Farha brought along her friend Jazmen Jafar, a law school graduate who also makes money on OnlyFans while debating right-wing weirdos and usually coming across as smarter than them.
If you’re not a paid subscriber, you can get a free preview of the discussion through the RSS feed.
Both girls agree with me that while sex work might not be for everyone, for some women it makes sense. I am very privileged, getting to make a living enjoying what I do. I don’t feel I’m in the position to tell someone they have to work a normal job when they can avoid it. That’s a utilitarian argument, but not the same as Bug Man-ism where we turn into bean counters. Rather, when we diverge from utilitarianism it can only be because we are guided by a moral and spiritual commitment to freedom, whatever the consequences might be.
I asked the girls about what books they read, and Jazmen replied that the only reason she has time to read books at all is because she works as an OnlyFans girl rather than a lawyer. This reminded me of an idea that has been associated with both reactionaries and leftists, which is that individuals need to be freed from the drudgery of everyday work in order to undergo moral, intellectual, and cultural development.
Other topics covered include
What did their Muslim families think of their chosen profession?
In what ways do I agree with manosphere influencer types and where do they go off the rails?
In an ideal world, would more or fewer women be sex workers?
Is Farha still a virgin?
What is it like to date with an OnlyFans?
Is Farha still as woke as she seemed to be when she was writing for the Women’s Media Center?
Have the girls ever had stalkers?
What exactly is a “Jack-Off Instruction” video?
What it’s like to debate manosphere influencer types, along with the differences between Muslim-bros, Christ is King, Groypers, and other factions within that space.
Are manosphere types sincere in their views or consciously grifting? How do they treat Jazmen and Farha when they’re on their shows?
Would they encourage their daughters to become OnlyFans creators?
As we discuss during the podcast, I think that a world of content creators reaching their audiences directly naturally takes us away from gender fluidity, blank slatism, and other ideas that are strongest in hierarchical institutions insulated from market forces like academia. Once people realize how easy it is for women to make money on OnlyFans, how can anyone deny sex differences? Open conversations between men and women naturally lead to discourses around things like age gaps, at what age women are most attractive, and whether having kids leads to a fulfilling life. Much of this discourse is quite stupid, but it’s not subject to top-down control, nor liable towards being funneled into a certain direction in the way that conversations always are when they’re occurring in the context of a highly institutionalized environment like the university or an HR training session. If you’re a trad, there’s much not to like with regards to the free availability of porn and how it is merging with other types of content creation. But all of this makes human nature much more difficult to lie about, and I’m inclined to see the emergence of the job category of “OnlyFans girl/public intellectual” as a step in the right direction.
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